Aaron Rodgers’ sideline demeanor has followed him his entire career, and it’s now a talking point for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After Thursday night’s 27-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns, a former Steelers lineman with two Super Bowl rings went after the quarterback on social media.

“Man, he might be a great locker room guy, and his teammates love him, but ARod’s game day behavior is despicable,” Trai Essex wrote on X late Thursday. Essex has standing to say it. Pittsburgh drafted him in the third round in 2005, and he spent seven seasons with the team, playing all five offensive line spots and winning Super Bowls XL and XLIII.

What set off Trai Essex

The post came hours after Prime Video cameras caught Rodgers shouting at the sideline in the first quarter, upset that a play call was slow to come in. Head coach Mike McCarthy appeared to answer with an insult of his own. The broadcast also showed Rodgers in a heated exchange with his wide receivers later in the game.McCarthy owned his part afterward. “Any negative communication on my part, I wish I wouldn’t use those words,” he said, according to Pro Football Talk. Rodgers pointed to the crowd noise. “It was loud. So some of the calls, it was hard to hear, for sure,” he said in comments shared by the team.

The two go back a long way. They won a Super Bowl together in Green Bay, and Rodgers got emotional after McCarthy’s first win as Steelers coach last month. That history is probably why McCarthy was so quick to move past it.

The harder part for Pittsburgh is that the frustration showed up in a loss. Rodgers threw for 299 yards and three touchdown passes but also had two interceptions and took five sacks, per CBS Sports, and the Steelers are 2-2 and in last place in the AFC North. Winning tends to make this kind of thing disappear. If the losses keep coming, more former Steelers than Essex will have something to say.